Klamath republican., October 09, 1913, Page 16, Image 16

8
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CALIFORNIA HARBER SECTION
“THE MIDLANDERS"
----------------------- By Charles Tenney Jackson
___
zz
deserve (t. All that's best In our beat study tn control. In breedin*, against right the old worker faces that. Ilut
Lindstrom was burly and strong.
blood is in you. I'm glad you're going the other's primal anger.
Harlan looked with friendly Interest
"Damn the law'”
to settle down here. You can do so
Hu roly In the country, the fut land,
Lindstrom strode on.
"Damn the
at the two urchins remaining. They
much—much that I couldn't reach. court!"
Ho turned with Marryat's there was place for a man stout of
».re a fair, open breed of the North,
The jurors, heart and willing, too old tt> work at
tow-headed, sunned by wholesome Your position Just see how these lit­ hand on his shoulder.
summer. The editor smiled at them tle Dane boys look at you—little loltrolng, whispering, putting on their his trade, but too young to loss hope,
from his desk which he was locking. Americans In the making, and you coats, were Silent. The Judge looked lie would save himself from the slug
The Danish boys held his fancy; he stand for all An erica to them justice, steadfast at the prisoner as If In him­ heup of the cities, where In the blatant
was given to set tlmentalizlna over the law, order.” He checked his rhapso­ self was the spiritual Inviolability of religion of success, he who falls Is
race fusion of the West, ami late ot'l- dising at Harlan's smile. "Old chap. the law which could listen and endure; either vicious or lazy. Ho he came to
which had pronounced and could be the river bottoms where hla wife had
torlalixlnM of that sort when ho ought 1 itean it'”
Between the two was a comradeship patient. Harlan was at his side, and heard of an uncle squatted on un­
to have been down meeting trains tor
the personals, or noting the fall mil­ whh h their years belled. Many a night now his firm lipa moved. "Lindstrom claimed land and truck-raising for a
of the long quiet summer Harlan had lost his case, lie had none—1 directed livelihood There, crowding Into t'ncle
linery opening., around the suuare.
"Well. Knute.” he began, and the lounged In Wiley's shop, and while the against him. The law la dear"- he Michigan's house-boat, which hud
elder of the two found some awkward old job-press clanked they argued stopped, and for an Instant Harlan had grown through the years by the addi­
sophomorlcally of the day's questions. a glimpse of the outrage and horror In tion of several crasy loan toe until it
fearlessness to address him:
"We just thought you might know- The West was astir with newer de­ hla father's soul "he cursed the taw. wus now a rambling cottage, the Lind-
first," Knute said. "Just as soon as lineations of democracy, and Curran, I sent him down for contempt.” The stroma were one of the few very poor
the Inutile Celtic poet and enthusiast, judge shivered though the air was families of the rich county. They were
the jury gets In."
Curran glam td across at the court­ felt the pulsing Socialism, the initia­ warm. "Come on lot us get the fruit big with the hope of the country five
years ago, They did not know that,
house again. "Oh. yes. Your dad's tive and recall, direct election of sena­ for your mother."
*1 he young man did not follow at first of alt. tho farmer is a capitalist,
case is on. isn't ItJ Hope he licks 'em, tors, the checking of judicial tyranny;
these, along with the little common or.ee. He. too, seemed daxed. but mors and tho city man turned adrift there,
Knute!”
The boy flushed gratefully. "Mr. Ma­ tssi es of the county—municipal own­ at his father's suffering than at Lind­ penniless and with mouths to feed, la
son said we'd win sure!” His young ership of the water-works, road-bulld- strom's crime. And as he »»Chrd the helpless. John became a day worker
note of faith arose. “He said what's tng. drains to carry off Hlnslnawa's jailer search Lindstrom, taking from in Tanner's quarries; his wife, a Ten-
law and justice for if Old Thad don't overflow. Inquiries Into the Tanner hla pockets a knife, a bit of string, a enssee womun. long expatriated from
have to dig up for having his crusher Company's county contraéis all the*« nickel and a piece of tobacco. all pite­ her hills, whining to l>e gone forever
fixed so's paw'il get his arm cut off. Wiley luid put b< fon* Harlan in his ous and Irutile, this pocket of a poor of Chicago, was now a querulous In­
Maron, he said what's law and Justice years of mental growth through high man Harlan saw a group on the valid. what with labor and child-bear­
court-house lawn outside. Two bare, ing There Lindstrom fought his inevi­
for If a poor man can’t win ugainst a school:
He knew of the Judge's conservatism, legged and terrified boys and a girl who table lowing fight; but with Old Michi­
rich man.”
The judge's son listened with a of all the influence of birth, breeding, seemed mothering them against this gan's truck raising, which cloaked hla
smile.
Next to Wiley Curran. Isife association which were about the great fear. Lindstrom raw them also. whisky peddling, and John's wages they
Mason, the lawyer, was the demagogic younger man. and he felt a master's Hla one fist shot up over the heads of all got on until Tanner's quarry ma­
scalawag of Rome. Wiley reached a pride, a Jealous triumph, that he was the jailers. "Ay. home with you. lads! chine crushed the chief bread-winner's
hand to pat Knute’s head. "Little forming Harlan's deeper Ideals. The Knute and Peter! There'll be no more hand.
man!
Ihope you win—you ought to.” Van Hart's hat! a tradition formed by school now. "Damn their law, their
Ho It wus damn the law! When one
Knute's courage grew. "Well, here's Harvard, the Atlantic Monthly, a New taxes and their schools! I'll have no Is old, bewildered, helpless before all
more
of
It
for
me
or
mine!
”
England
ancestry
and
generations
of
Harlan, his dad's judge. And the whole
these smooth phrases and precedents,
The girl tinder the arc light looked
county says Judge Van Hart's the thrifty but rot burdensome wealth.
all thia fine talk of sleek men to tho
back
silently.
"And
you.
too,
Aurelle!
”
finest man there is. He wouldn't let A tempered blood, a certain coldness In
jury, and one hears the judge direct
Old Thad Tanner get the best of dad looking on the larger aspect of affairs, the big man roared. "I’ve fed you In tho verdict against one, dose one mim e
all this went with the judge's calm, my house, but there'll be no more Words? Why, then, did the lawyers
In a suit, would he?”
The school for you!”
A curious consciousness came to kindly, Impcrturable example.
aay one had a right If the judge knew
Wiley Curran had started forward
Harlan's face. He caught
Wiley's West hod not broken the sense of their
so glibly different? A good workman,
with
a
cry.
The
Judge's
son
was
mute.
pitying smile. "Lindstrom's suing Tan­ culture. They w« re the cautious, gen­
too, on tho rock pile; quiet, steady,
ner for the loss of his arm at the ial Americans of the constitution whom But it seemed that there was graven matching hie strength sgalnst tho
on his soul more than the picture there
quarry,” the editor said. "Tanner of­ one means by "the best people."
young men, those terrible, merciless
Except Rube. He was extra-consti­ As If on the velvet lawn, against the young men who fling the discard aside,
fered two hurdered as a settlement,
peace
and
order
of
the
town,
the
rich
but Mason persuaded John to sue. tutional and a reversion. Even Har­
take hla Job and go whistling down
And I’m afraid"—he checked his voice lan could sympathetically understand fat land attentive, a life had been taken the road, pipe in mouth, when the day
—“well, contributory negligence and why Rube's hands felt too big at his In shame; or more than a life, for on la dune! And now broken crushed bewil­
the souls of th. workingman's children
all that. Ixjrd. lord—-two hundred for mother's dinner-table.
dered with the smooth talk of lawyers
They walked out through the warm there whs wrought a hate for all time,
a man's right arm—a workingman's
and knowing one has lost does a man
Ils
was
conscious
now
that
Curran
scented night. Wiley sighed. "Old
inn!"
take it calmly when the Judge sen­
was
angrily
shouting
wild
words;
that
He looked on Knute's sturdy face. boy, I suppose this Is alsrut the last
tences him and his children to beg­
Peter, by his side, peered fearfully at You'll be gone now for a year. And the two lads had fled, and that the gary? No, he raises his flat and
Harlan. To the dusty lads from the Arne Vance is going back to Wisconsin slender girl, with a last look us If her damn the law!
Pocket quarry, Harlan was a young to finish up his agricultural course; bitterness were too large to hurl at
Lindstrom came back the quarry road
man! I hope you win—you ought to.” and Janet'll be too busy with school them, was following.
The young man felt an Intolerable to bls shanty. He sat across the table
clothes pressed at the Iowa Pressing affairs to find time for our meets In the
from hla two freckled sons and the old
Club, and bought front seats In the tin old shop. When we talked most of the revulsion. He suddenly ran to the cor­
one-legged soldier whisky-smuggler
opera-house when a show came to nlght--us four. You've meant so much ner, staring after her and then dashed
smoking his pipe by the wood-lxix.
town. The town kids in the "nigger to me. Janet says we ought to get out on along a street leading to the bluff.
They feared to question tho returned
heaven” could look down ar.d see Har­ the July number of The Inland Empire When he reached It he saw the girl on
the trail among the rocks, running with jailbird; when his wife whined soma
lan with some pretty girl. Also he for Christmas.”
Then they both shouted Irrenr.-sslbly. the lithe swlftress of a doo. He complaint, as she held the baby to
went to the frat dances and treated
her flat breast, stirring her pots over
damsels at the Palace of Hweets, and The Inland Empire was a puling shouted after her:
the ajove, be growled a rough tender­
"Aurelle!
Aurelio!"
monthly
the
quartet
had
started
a
year
was a “Geek", whatever that was. and
ness.
studied law back East. and was a no­ ago with some vast hope of harboring But no answer came down from the
"There, woman. The jail—you can
table person in Rome, Iov. a So, sure­ therein the genius of the Midlands. It leafy cliff. And after a moment some
ly, to be the son of Judge Van Hart was always in the Earlville print- guilty consciousness stilled hla tongue. smell It on me. but no matter. And
and live on High street and own one of shops. waiting for the editors to pay His class, hla kind, bls tradition, the the work — we can do a bit yet with
the four automobiles in the county—all the printers' bills, four months behind blood behind him fought down his the gardens. It's here we'll stay, for I'll
this went with law and order and Its date-line of Issue. Janet Vance's man's rebellion. He went back to tho not lift my face In town again. They
righteousness, ar.d one was deserving, salary usually went to helping on the square where hla father was waiting heaped the filth of the law on m<
without envy, of having one's pants hamstrung magazine. Wiley Curran In tho buggy. The men of tho town and my children's name. We'll have no
pressed at the Iowa Pressing Club. If never had any money, and the Van had scattered from the place of justice. more of their town and schools and alL
If I'm no fit man for 'em, my lads
Knute could have apotheosized all Hart's did not take kindly to Harlan's
are not—we'll take no more of tbelr
that was best in America, next to Rube connection with the project.
CHA ITER III.
time and money.”
As the two stood chuckling on the
Van Hart, who could bat .400. he would
Tho Discard.
Hhe looked up In her slattern fright.
have placed Harlan, the genial, kindly corner, from the court-house windows
They gave Lindstrom, the quarry­ He ruled them with hla heavy Furl­
young man of High street and Har­ there came the bellow of a man's voice.
Even Aurelia
It Jarred and reverberated far down man, hla freedom at the end of the day. tan's righteousness.
vard.
"Old Thad's a hard one,” Knute ad­ High street with its sleepy homes All that time he sat staring down the Michigan's gipsy Umb of a girl, under
ded. but his voice rose to a triumphant tucked in the dusk, a red lamp here whitewashed corridor at the grimy John's foster parenthood these five
faith.
"But law and justice’ll beat and there, farned by the air of the window beyond which the reddening years since the Lindstrom» came, had
him! Maybe we'll get a thousand dol­ odorous country. Then came a silence. maples hung.
The other prisoners to be still before him.
"Ah, John!” the mother cried. "Taka
lars! Aurelle said so. And if we get It was as If the entire town, the sober, swabbed the cement floor or played
a thousand dollars, Aurelle’s going to decent community, stopped, shocked by with greasy curds, but the one-armed the children out of school? Knuta
have a dress and go to the high-school some blasphemy. But what the two man did not notice them. Marryat, the ready for his seventh grade, and Au­
party! Uncle Mich said so! And Un­ men on the corner heard now was the sheriff, had a real sympathy for him os relio in high school. And llko to grad­
uate If we can get the dress and all!”
cle Mich won't peddle no more bootleg voice of Harlan’s father, quiet, sure, he sat In the stink of the JaiL
whisky if we get a thousand dollars! insistent with authority against the
"Come, John, man—wash up and be Hhe rubbed her bony hand across her
Then he and paw'll get along better hoarse passion of the other:
"The leaving. It was only a day the judge chin to ease the sting of the burning
when he don’t peddle bootleg whisky. court can not—” they could only catch Bent ye down for—for cursing the law, pork fat and muttered, "My man's
And—" his voice fell solemnly, "If we a word here and there—"intolerable John, and that's wrong. But that ye crazy!”
get the thousand dollars maybe Au- . , . the law , . . Mr. BailifT . , . lost the case, that’s bad, too, what with
'Damn their schools,” he growled—
relie'd go to church!”
John Lindstrom. Contempt—"
the wife and yer crippled arm and alL "and courts. God will hold us safa
The editor laughed gracelessly. He
Then a lower bull-like answer dying But Judge Van Hart's a gixrd man, not man with bls fine talk of juatlca
could not see Harlan's face as the lads away; and the shuffle of feet.
John—and I doubt if any man in all I'll have no more of It”
raced across the lawn to the court­
Harlan ran across the lawn with the county was sorrier foi ye than he
Old Michigan took out hla pipe to
house.
Wiley following. As they entered the — but it was law, John."
murmur. “John, man—don't take It so
"When?” he raid irrelevantly, "are basement by the Jail door a little pro­
The quarry worker took his knife bitter. There's enough know you're an
you coming back to practice law and cession came down; a big rough man, and soiled tobacco and bit of string honest man. A day In jail—who’ll think
expedite the regime of justice, truth, ar.d by his side, Marryat, the sheriff. and went away without word. When worse of ye for that?”
benignity and the other virtues, Har­ The prisoner looked ahead, his blue a man's fifty and on the ebb of
The quarryman lopped his big frame
lan T'
eyes dulled, the week's growth of beard strength, a- d has felt failure, and over a chair at the tabla Year by year
"Next year. Father wants me to on his face twisted into ugly lines. His thinks of wife and children as he sits he had come to extend hts authority
begin with the old firm. Donley is a right sleeve swung empty from the holding hla empty sleeve, and knows over Michigan's sorry house and patch
good deal of a hack. Ro there's a elbow. Behind him was Lafe Mason, he has lost against the face of a society of land snatched from the willow
chance for me.”
his attorney, perplexed, whispering to organized ruthlessly to crush the loser, slough of the everchanglng river bed.
“Chance?” Curran sighed. "When, Jewett, the pot-bellied district attor­ he has little heart for the comfortlnga Tho old Confederate had taken himself
of the jailer.
for a Van Hart, was there ever any­ ney who listened apathetically.
to tho woods when the Llndstrntns
thing but a chance—the golden chance?
He wont away a newborn criminal. overran him too much; Aurelle had
The big man went down.
At the
I suppose everything will be cut out Jail door he stopped and raised his Before, merely the discard of the cities, been the bond that held him to hla
easy for you. You’re a son of fortune, huge fist to shake It up the stilts. a mechanic, worker on the structural niece's family— it made something of
Harlan.” He looked about his dingy Harlan saw there his father who had Iron of great buildings until cast aside a homo for her, mean as It might be.
shop, where his father's dreams and just come out of his chambers and In this dangerous trade for younger
his own had ended. "Well, son, you was watching Lindstrom, his face a men and more alert Well, that was
(To Or Coatlaaedj
(«»■tlHMnl Krom Last Wwkl